about

Anni Snyman is an artist based in Johannesburg, South Africa.

Of the many creative fields she has engaged, her primary focus over the last decade has been on land & nature art, and animated poetry.

Anni is one of the co-founders of the Site_Specific Collective, a land and nature art group based in South Africa, acting as it’s co-ordinator from 2011 to 2016. In this role she helped actualise two international land art biennials, supported regional land art projects in Johannesburg, Pretoria, and Cape Town, initiated the Karoo Geoglyphs project, supported the Eden to Addo land art route in Plettenberg Bay, and oversaw the South African leg of the Global Nomadic Art Project ‘Stories of Rain‘ in 2016. Important collaborative partners in these projects include her brother PC Janse van Rensburg, and internationally renowned land artist Strijdom van der Merwe – co-founder and curator of Site_Specific’s international land and nature art events.

Besides visual art, Anni’s other great love is poetry, and along with animator katty vandenberghe and musician Eugenie Grobler she has participated in FilmVerse 1 & 2 – an animated poetry project run by the ATKV (Afrikaans Taal & Kuns Vereeniging) with producer Nita Cronjé and creative director Diek Grobler. Both films have been featured at international animation festivals, most importantly the celebrated Russian/Ukranian KROK Animated Films Festival.

As an artist Anni Snyman seeks out collaborative creative projects with individuals and groups of artists, often co-ordinating community-driven art events with social and environmental conscience. Since 2004 she has co-ordinated projects such as ‘Searching for A Saviour’ at Museum Africa and ‘Ansisters‘ at Constitution Hill with creative partner Eugenie Grobler, ultimately leading to the formation of the Site_Specific Collective.

Another long-standing collaborative partnership has been with Erica Lüttich and the Boitumelo Project based in Hillbrow, Johannesburg – an outreach arts program that provides skills, economic opportunities and social support to its participants.

Anni strives to build creative communities around specific themes and events – each collaborative journey attempts to answer a fundamental question about our humanity and our place in this world. She sees the process and relationships built during each project as an essential part of the artworks produced, laying down the foundations on which the next creative journey will rest. Anni refers to these journeys as ‘creative constellations’ or ‘kreatiewe kunstellasies’ in her mother tongue, Afrikaans.

visit the archive site where early projects are catalogued (1999-2010).

You can contact the artist at anniATannisnymanDOTcoDOTza

Banner image: Anni Snyman in collaboration with PC Janse van Rensburg, and the help of Site_Specific artists, supporters and the Matjiesfontein community completed the Snake Eagle Thinking Path in February 2015 as part of the Karoo Geoglyphs project. Image by Lance Foster of Fluid Films.